Asus announces GeForce GTX 1080 and 1060 cards with faster RAM

Leaving the reference design behind.

Nvidia's hardware partners have the green light to use faster GDDR5 memory on custom designed GeForce GTX 1060 and 1080 graphics cards, and Asus has responded accordingly. Its lineup of graphics cards now include two new entries, both with faster clocked RAM than the reference blueprint calls for.

The first is the Asus ROG Strix GeForce GTX 1080 OC (ROG-STRIX-GTX1080-O8G-11GBPS). It has 8GB of GDDR5X memory like other GTX 1080 cards, only it's running at 11Gbps instead of 10Gbps.

Asus apparently isn't ready to divulge the GPU clockspeed, so it's unclear if that is overclocked as well. Being an ROG Strix card with the OC label, we'd be surprised if it wasn't. That's especially true with so much emphasis placed on cooling.

The card is cooled with a custom three-fan cooling solution that is supposed to resist dust. Underneath is a large aluminum heatsink with a "MaxContact" copper heat spreader.

"MaxContact is an industry-first GPU cooling technology, featuring an enhanced copper heat spreader that directly contacts the GPU. MaxContact utilizes precision machining to provide a surface that makes up to 2X more contact with the GPU than traditional heat spreaders, resulting in improved thermal transfer," Asus explains.

Finally, the card sports an 8+2 power phase design, which is something else that could help with overclocking (and overall stability).

The other card with faster memory is the GeForce GTX 1060 OC (GTX1060-O6G-9GBPS). Its 6GB of GDDR5 RAM is clocked at 9Gbps, up from 8Gbps. Like the GTX 1080, Asus is currently withholding the GPU clockspeed.

This one also sports a custom cooler featuring the company's DirectCU II technology. It's a two-fan cooling solution with four heatpipes plumbed into a large aluminum heatsink. The heatsinks make direct contact with the GPU. According to Asus, its cooling solution performs 30 percent better than reference.

There is no word yet on price or availability, though Videocardz.com seems to think they'll be out around the middle of next month.